This is an undated booking photo of Luke C. Hasler who was charged with murder and kidnapping Wednesday, MArch 17, 2004, in the disappearance of Michelle Johnson. Hasler, 34, was arrested Tuesday, two days after the mother of two vanished. Johnson, 32, was last seen leaving a downtown Guerneville, Calif., bar around closing time Sunday morning. About 40 minutes after Johnson left the bar, police received a call from a passer-by who reported seeing a woman yelling or waving her hands in a pickup truck.(AP Photo/ Sonoma County Sheriff's Department) Luke Hasler BEST QUALITY Luke Clay Hasler is charged with murder and kidnapping. Luke Clay Hasler is charged with murder and kidnapping.

This is an undated booking photo of Luke C. Hasler who was charged...

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This is an undated photo of 32-year-old Michelle Johnson, who disappeared after leaving a bar early Sunday, March 14, 2004, in Guerneville, Calif. Johnson was reported missing after leaving the bar around closing time. A short time later a witness said she saw a woman calling for help in a pickup truck on Highway 116 near Guerneville. Some of the missing woman's clothes was found in the area, and authorities shut down Highway 116 for several hours early Sunday morning while the sheriff's department investigated. Johnson is described as a white female with brown hair and blue eyes. She is five-foot, six inches tall and weighs about 125 pounds. (AP Photo/Santa Rosa Press Democrat) , MAGS OUT, BEST QUALITY Luke Clay Hasler is charged with murder and kidnapping. Luke Clay Hasler is charged with murder and kidnapping.

An unemployed butcher was convicted Thursday of the kidnapping and first-degree murder of 32-year-old Michelle Johnson, a Guerneville mother of two who disappeared after leaving a bar last spring.

A Sonoma County jury of seven women and five men deliberated for 2 1/2 days before finding Luke Clay Hasler, 36, of Guerneville, guilty of killing Johnson on March 14, 2004. Her nude, mud-caked body was found in the Russian River four days later.

As the lengthy verdict was read, Hasler said, "It's not true."

Hasler faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sonoma County Judge Elliott Daum scheduled Hasler's sentencing for June 13.

"We just hope this buys some small measure of comfort for Michelle's family," prosecutor Larry Scoufos said outside the courtroom. "It's going to be a long recovery for them."

The verdict caps a 6-week trial in which the jurors heard vivid testimony and viewed a slew of graphic evidence, including photographic slides from the autopsy of Johnson's body. Her waist-length hair had been cut off, and her body and face bore numerous bruises.

Dr. Brian Peterson, a forensic pathologist, testified for the prosecution that Johnson's autopsy showed that she had been incapacitated by blunt force trauma before being drowned.

Peterson said Johnson's body had 19 contusions on her torso and limbs and about nine bruises on her face, plus multiple breaks in her jaw. He testified that her injuries came from separate blows and were not consistent with falling from a truck or striking the pavement.

Taking the witness stand, Hasler testified that he had accidentally hit Johnson with his pickup truck at 55 mph as she was walking home from the Bullpen bar about 2 miles west of Guerneville -- and that he was driving her to the hospital when she jumped or fell from his truck. Then, he said, he panicked: He cut off Johnson's hair and removed her clothes because he had vomited on her and wanted to hide any traces of his DNA.

Two of Hasler's former girlfriends testified that Hasler had a history of domestic violence.

A juror who declined to identify himself told reporters that Peterson's testimony was pivotal in the jury's decision. "There was absolutely no evidence that this was a woman who had been either hit by a car or thrown from a car," he said.

Hasler's attorney, Bernabe Hernandez, told the jurors in his closing arguments that the defendant had lied to the police and his friends because he was ashamed of his involvement in the woman's death. But he insisted that his client had not murdered Johnson.

"I'm disappointed," Hernandez said of the jury's verdict. "It was a calculated risk (to let him testify). It was our opinion that he had to explain certain things. It came down to who believed whom. ... Everything he told me rang true."